OC Creation Guide
Introduction to OCs So you want to know how to make a good OC? Well with hope this guide will help you make a good solid OC. OCs come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, qualities, colors and so on. This guide can be used for OCs of all kind and not just Sonic OCs as this site is formally about. Types of OCs In general there are two big types of OCs people affiliate all OCs with: Good OC and Bad OC while the "Bad" is broken down into many subsets. But those are normally a very flawed as some of the "Bad" OC subsets can have good OCs as well. So let's take a look at what kinds of OCs there are. There are ones not listed but these are common ones. Edgy Mc Edgersons Okay if you think of Shadow the Hedgehog right off the bat with this term then you are right. Edgy Mc Edgersons but for this guide I will refer to them simply as Edgys normally tend to have a dark color palette consisting of dark reds, grays and blacks. But you can't judge them like this alone. Most Edgys come from some kind of tragic past and are very rude, mysterious and can have villain like qualities. Now not all Edgys are bad OCs they can be good but they take time to make and a lot of work to become really original and not a gray blank character with a dark past. Peppies While other terms are used for this subset normally consisting of high spirited characters sproting bright and vivid designs. In a lot of cases their attitude tends to be annoying and a pain to many. most are neon and other bright colors like pink and they act hyper, happy and crazy even. Self inserts Now these can be good or bad in a lot of cases. Their design tends to have more human sounding traits and they are normally as they sound. An insert of the creators own person into the universe. This is normally seen in fanfictions that feature a human being transported to the universe and becoming a mobian or whatever they are in that world. Or even just their bodies change to adapt to a different human world such as getting magical powers or other such things. The big problem is that in most cases they become the center of all attention. Gary Stu/Mary Sues Oh dear lord these are no matter what BAD OCS Gary Stus(male) or Mary Sues(Female) are characters who are over powered. while they can be any color scheme they are always looked down upon because they are overpowered. or OP as it is known as by some. Most of the time they can defeat enemies that should be super powerful with little to no effort and they get along with EVERYONE. They tend to be related to Cannon and real characters as well as being able to use a special power of a cannon character better then the cannon character can. DO NOT make a Gary Stu/Mary Sue it will not end well. For this guide we will refer to them as the "Stus" We will touch later on how to identify them as well. Making your OC Now that we know what kind of OC's there are lets focus on making them. General information, Backstory and personality, likes/dislikes The first thing you want to focus on is the characters general stats like their name, age, gender, height etc. Then you want to ask what happened to them in their past how did they become who they are today then apply a fitting personality to them. Design their looks based off of this. Relations are the next thing. Avoid close relationships like lover and family to cannon character more on that later. Friends are okay but make sure they don't get along with everybody since that is the start of a Gary Stu/Mary Sue. Have enemies too both cannon and OC help. With the likes and dislikes that is a very wide array of things from simple stuff like hot dogs to bigger things like hating another characters guts. All in all this category except for characters they do not like doesn't really matter as much in terms of an OP character. Powers, Strengths and Weaknesses Okay this is what will really make or break a character. Powers is a big subject and probably the widest of all in terms of content. Your OC's powers can be simple things like good with this or that or more advanced things such as magic or another supernatural power. Now be careful in using things like Chaos and limit what they can do. Same goes with magic or you will find yourself with a Stu real quick. To do this either make the powers that they can use limited or limit the amount. Be sure to balance all strengths with an equal footing weakness. Say if your OC has fire immunity make them say vulnerable to electricity or ice. Fitting them in This is the biggest part of what your OC will be like in your stories. Your best option to begin with is put your OC in situations made by the developers of a series, how would they react based on their personality. If you make stories like this DO NOT POST THEM use them for reference only. Because this way you can go off of ideas and not stress to make your own should you have trouble with that. If your OC can take care of everything in a big situation with little effor I.E. the Black Arms invasion from Shadow the Hedgehog then chances are your OC is an OP character and therefor a Stu character. If they can hold their own but need help or end up with equally leveled negative reaction as positive in the end they are balanced. If they are eager to help and obnoxious they are a Peppy character based on personality. If they are "Oh well tough shit." but help once their personal agenda is interrupted then they are more then likely an Edgy. If it is more then likely how you would react it might be a self insert but more information on the character would be needed for a solid answer. Also be sure that they have friends and enemies. But make sure they don't get along with all of the characters that might be on their side have them conflict with them. In a Sonic universe terms say the OC is good and with Sonic. Perhaps this OC gets along with Sonic but hates Tails or they just don't get along with Sonic at all since he's cocky and immature. But they get along with Tails or another character fine. Try to find a good balance of friends, enemies, and characters that they just don't get along with but are not really enemies. Be sure if you decide to have a love interest to make them an OC or a cannon character that isn't shipped with another character and they would fit well with your OC in terms of personality, likes, dislikes and other attributes. Your first Story or Fanfiction By now you should have all of your basic information, name, powers, relations, story, physical attributes and character design ect. So it is time to make your first debut to to the wonderful and mysterious place known as the internet. Now people on the internet can be savage and nothing like they are in real life so most general insults like simply "This OC sucks" can be taken with a grain of salt. But more elaborate ones that go into detail why said OC might suck should be taken in to consideration. With that to start your first story you need to know the following, * Scenario * Other Characters * Antagonist and Protagonist * Basic fiction writing skills * knowledge of the universe in general * how to post to sites like fanfiction.net (For this guide we will use fanfiction.net for the posting later on.) Before you Begin Before you can even start writing you will need a text editor of some form. Now fanfiction.net accepts most all file formats but supports other files more then others. Your two most viable options are Microsoft Word or OpenOffice Writer. The difference is HUGE with them because they are the same exact thing except the difference is Microsoft Word will cost you and OpenOffice Writer is 100% free. So while the choice is yours OpenOffice is recommended. Also familiarize yourself with the universe you are writing about. Learn what the limitations of different things are and the characters, land, events, and timeline. This way you will know what you are going into and when your story will take place should it fall under any part of the cannon timeline. Format and Writing Your stories format is the most important thing this section will help you find what to do and not to do when making the story's format and layout. Writing Format For the story the first thing you want to do is avoid script stories. These are in some cases though well organized look poor in quality. You need to be able to pain a picture in your readers head so give details in a paragraph format. They look better when written like a normal book. Text The next thing is the use of text like bold and italics. This is important for many reasons including grammar, organization and all out look of the story. Bold should be used only for a few things such as Authors Notes (A/N), Chapter title (i.e. Chapter 1: Introduction) or an end or to be continued at the end of a chapter. Italics can be used for somethings as well. When telling a flashback Italics are good, or a legend, in story book text, or song lyrics. All of these you should use italics for however nothing else commonly should use them. Your general content should be 12 point font in a simple text like Times New Roman or Cambria. Do not use all of the fancy text even if it can be uploaded like that it will be difficult to read and people will ignore it. Content The content is the most important, what will your story have? Characters, locations, items, important things are all examples of this. To make the best possible story include a vast array of them. Fight scenes, love scenes (If applicable), drama, suspense and other such things work great for this. The problem you will run into is finding the balance. Your stories plot will be the main factor of what to include. Will you have a love story? more lovey dovey scenes and less fighting. An adventure with the fate of the world at steak? More action and less lovey dovey stuff. Posting your story Alright this is it the big moment, posting your OC onto the service/site! So using fanfiction.net here is the break down. # go to http://www.fanfiction.net/ # login or create an account # after you are logged in click on your user name in the top right corner this will bring you to you profile settings page # Go to the "Publish" tab in the side bar and click "Rules & Guidelines" read and accept this is important for certain content will not be allowed by certain publishers under the sites rulers I.E. J.R. Ward and J.D. Robb based stories will not be accepted. # notice the side bar and click "Publish" then "Doc Manager" # Click on select file to upload your first chapter document, give it a title and click upload to save it on the site for 90 days. # Now go to the "New Story" Tab under the Publish side bar. # Now you will need to select a category (categories if you are making a crossover story) # You will now be prompted with page asking for: Title, Description, Language, Rating, Genera A, Genera B, Status (Complete/In Progress), Document and Characters A, B, C, and D. As well as a CAPTCHA code # Fill the Title with your stories title and use Description/Summery to summarize your story in a few hundred words. # Now select your language it is written in, the proper story rating (K, K+,T, or M, Think of it like the ESRB but the MA rating is not allowed) # Add any other characters that appeared or will appear including "OC" if it centers around your OC or he/she has a major part. # Select your document and fill out the proper CAPTCHA code before clicking "submit" # Congratulations your story is now published on fanfiction.net you will have to wait now for reviews. Now either mark complete if done under the "Status" field or read the next few steps to learn how to add new chapters. # repeat steps 4-6 to upload a new chapter # Under Publish>Manage stories select your story and go to Content/Chapters to upload your new chapter by selecting an uploaded document and adding a title to the new chapter just his post new chapter and continue until your story is complete. Be sure once you're done to mark your story as "Complete"